It’s hard to imagine there could be a more sickening display of sucking up to Sean Hannity and his cause celebre - the defense of George Zimmerman - than there was in a segment the night after Hannity’s interview with Zimmerman last week. While Fox News attorneys Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren as well as other attorneys were blunt in their assessment that Zimmerman had harmed his case with his appearance, Fox legal analysts Peter Johnson Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle fell over themselves suggesting that Hannity had just helped acquit him.

The segment, which aired Thursday, July 19, 2012, posed the question: did George Zimmerman “help or hurt his case” with his hour-long interview on Hannity the night before. Hannity surely knew he'd be getting only props from these two guests but even he had to be pleasantly surprised - if not downright bowled over - at how they gushed.

Birther-booster and toady Johnson called the interview a “net-net positive because it depicted (Zimmerman) as not a racist monster but as a person of introspection, maybe even a person of spirituality, a person who is standing by his actions but understands the need to apologize to the family. We also came to understand, as a result of this interview, things we never heard in the mainstream media. He alleges that he was being suffocated, that his head was being banged repeatedly and that the victim, Trayvon Martin, after suffocating him, attempted to move his hand down his body to his holsterered firearm in order to kill him.”

The liberal-before-Fox Guilfoyle seems to base her opinions on which way her paycheck is blowing. A former prosecutor, she almost certainly knew that Zimmerman had harmed his case. Without specifically saying whether Zimmerman had been hurt or helped, she lavished praise on Hannity:

We’re getting a real glimpse into what the trial will be and what some of the witness testimony (will be)… What you got there was, you know, George Zimmerman on the stand with you asking the questions. You brought up everything about what happened that night, you asked the questions about the percipient eyewitness to the crime and you confronted him on those details and he gave answers. And that’s why the prosecutor ran to the courtroom to enter this into discovery, into evidence.

In other words, the prosecution saw the interview as a big gift.

Johnson, however, offered up what Hannity called the “interesting theory” that the prosecution rushed the interview into evidence “for PR purposes” and “to intimidate the defense.”

Hannity agreed with Johnson that the interview had revealed “an element of spirituality” in Zimmerman. Why? Because he said he prayed for the Martin family every night and because of his now-infamous remark that “It was all God’s plan.”

“Absolutely,” Guilfoyle agreed. “And I think that he made it very clear that he felt that he had no other choice but to act in the way he did to save his own life, which is classic self defense which a jury can then find him not guilty of the crime. But he regrets the ultimate outcome of the loss of a life. So he tried to really articulate that and it just showed a more human side than we have seen already seen – you know, repeatedly in the press, in the mainstream media, which has depicted him as sort of a monster and a child killer.”

Well, except for the widespread impression that Zimmerman seemed to think that killing Martin was “all God’s plan” and not for him to second guess. Here’s the transcript of that portion of the interview:

Hannity: Do you regret getting out of the car to follow Trayvon that night?”

Zimmerman: No, sir.

Hannity: Do you regret that you, you had a gun that night?

Zimmerman: No, sir.

Hannity: Do you feel you wouldn’t be here for this interview if you didn’t have that gun?

Zimmerman: No, sir… I feel that is all God’s plan and (not) for me to second guess it or judge it. 

Frankly, I don’t think – as others have interpreted – that Zimmerman meant to suggest he thought it was God’s plan that he killed Martin. I think he intended to convey a belief that God spared his life that night. Zimmerman later amended his statement to say, “I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that would have put me in the position where I didn’t have to take his life. And I do want to tell everyone…that I’m sorry that this happened.”

But the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions and if Zimmerman has no regrets about his actions, says he’s sorry he “had” to take a life and thinks his own survival or any part of the outcome of his fateful encounter with Martin is “God’s plan” that shouldn’t be second guessed, it’s logical to conclude he has shrugged off Martin’s death as part of God’s plan, too.

But to Johnson – and an agreeing Guilfoyle – this was proof of Zimmerman’s sophisticated spirituality.

Johnson said:

I’m not so sure he understood the question… He’s not a spinmeister, he’s not a professional communicator. He’s obviously a person that has some values in terms of religion and so when he’s talking about God’s plan, in an inarticulate way, he’s talking about a complex theological theory that is in the Islam religion, in the Judaic religion, in the Christian religions – and that’s the notion of Divine Law, of Divine Providence. Um, and so if he’s speaking of that, of God’s will, as it were, I don’t think he’s speaking it as a justification (Guilfoyle could be heard agreeing off camera) or somehow that he’s a cold-blooded guy.

“It’s certainly not compatible with, ‘I pray for them every day,’” Hannity added, smiling.

Yet, even Johnson let slip an acknowledgment that Hannity may have harmed Zimmerman’s case. “So we see a picture that we’ve never seen before. And I think to his lawyer’s credit, he said, ‘Listen, Hannity’s gonna give me a fair shot. He’s gonna ask some tough questions,’ and you did, and you asked some tough questions that may not put him in a good light going forward but at the same time, Americans got to see unvarnished a story of one man thrust into a situation, how he responded and see how we respond.”

Actually, Zimmerman thrust himself into the situation when he got out of the car and confronted Trayvon Martin. But I guess that’s just a minor detail when you’re dealing with a saint like Zimmerman.

As the segment wound down, Hannity asked about the chances for Zimmerman getting convicted.

Guilfoyle said, “Based on what we learned and what we heard last night in that interview, I think the case got a lot better for George Zimmerman.”

Johnson said, “I think more than reasonable doubt, more than reasonable doubt was created last night.”

Sure they do.